Polyandry

[Thiago Oppermann]

A lot of people here have mentioned that polygyny can be a form of
exploitation of women. The point is well taken in many historical cases, but
it is not universal. There are instances of polygyny affording a measure of
protection to women within patriarchal societies - the wives gang up, and
woe to the husband that pisses them off... Severe exploitation is, in my
opinion, correlated to the degree to which women are excluded from public
life - which means that there are other factors at work, for instance,
whether the married couple/triple/whatever moves to a new location upon
marriage, or whether the wives all move to the husband's village, or whether
the husband moves to the first wife's village, etc...

Actually existing polyandry is also not much of a model for women's
liberation. Unfortunately, it does not appear to have much to do with
fulfilling women's sexual appetites (although I should note my sources on
these are English ethnographers who may not have been paying attention). For
example, the classic sociological explanation of Sri Lankan polyandry by
Leach is that it occurs  where brothers and sisters both inherit property
and where the brothers have joint ownership of land. To resolve the problem
of land fragmentation, the brothers marry the same woman. If I recall it
right, the arrangements in Sri Lanka don't make the woman a female Sultan,
and the brothers retain control over the property. As far as I know,
polyandry of this 'fraternal' variety is the most common kind.

Thiago Oppermann